Adventures in Living
by Illusion-Factory
Summary: The morning after your world gets destroyed is always the hardest. Luckily N has some help coming to terms with his new reality. Even if White looks like she'd rather be punching him and Black tries his best to sleep through breakfast.


Disclaimer: Pokemon does not belong to me it belongs to the geniuses at Nintendo.

Look! I wrote a thing. My shipping wall is giant vast wall of nothing, and in the center is postcard sized picture of Black, N and White with a red crayon heart drawn around it. I NEED NO OTHER SHIPS

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N isn't quite sure what to make of…whatever this thing is. That's all that he can think of it really, as a thing. He's not sure how to define it, if it can be defined. He's never been the best with social interactions or relationships; he can freely admit that now. But he's pretty sure what he, Black and White have isn't exactly normal.

After the confusion of the champion battle, where White and Black had defeated both him and his father, N wasn't sure how to feel. Everything he had worked so hard and sacrificed so much for had just come crashing down around his ears to the sound of the legendary dragons' roars. His very beliefs were shattered in the face of his father's words. N couldn't handle that, didn't want to handle that, so he gave in. He turned to his dragon and left, the tower collapsing behind him.

He hadn't given his dragon any directions and the beast aimlessly circled the skies until it tired and landed in a remote corner of Unova. N had gone to sleep that night, stretched out on the grass with the stars spread out above him, feeling lost and completely alone despite the bulk of the legendary curled behind him. He had woken up to the smell of food cooking and the snap of a campfire. The sun was just starting over the horizon and White bustled around what was now a campsite. Bright eyed and bushy tailed despite the early hour, she snapped instructions to her emboar manning the campfire while simultaneously directing her renucluous in gathering firewood.

N had blinked in surprise and sat up; a warm blanket that had been draped over him in sleep slid off, and next to him, a sleepy murmur as Black rolled over, curled tightly in a ball in his sleeping bag and threw an arm around N's waist. N blushed and jerked away, Black didn't wake up, his arm landing limply on the ground but the movement drew White's attention. She stomped over and N, matching her angry glare scurried back on his hands until he hit a tree and cowered as White towered over him. N remembered her ruthless battling style. How hard her eyes were as she commanded the finishing blow against his father's prized pokemon. He remembered reading reports on her encounters with plasma grunts and how though Black was the better battler; she was more feared due to her abandoning battling protocol to fight alongside her pokemon, often times punching the opposing plasma grunt in the face. He wondered what she would do to him, leader of team Plasma. Though that wasn't quite right was it? His father had always been the leader and N had just been what? A mascot? A figure head?

"You're a vegetarian right?" N blinked again, surprised, he looked up. White still looked as menacing as ever, her eyes appraising him and her hands balled into fists on her hips. The words just did not make sense with her posture.

"Bu wha?" N managed, and White rolled her eyes.

"Are you. A. Vege-TARIAN?" She drawled, slowing her words down as though she were talking to someone she deemed either hard of hearing or stupid. N could guess which one she thought he was. Focusing rather on the question instead of who was asking he managed to answer without stuttering.

"Yes." White had nodded once, decisively, as though she had known that and turned to walk back over to where her emboar sat, diligently manning the frying pan placed over the fire. On her way she harshly nudged the bundled pile of sleeping bag that was Black with her foot in a halfhearted kick. The boy mumbled in protest, rolling away from her. "Up and at 'em lazy!" She called over her shoulder. Black sat up, hair sticking up in all directions and eyes only half open.

"Time is it?" He slurred, clearly still half asleep. White responded without looking away from the fire as she transferred something from the pan to a metal dish.

"6 am. AND DON'T YOU GO ANYWHERE!" N froze with one foot still partly raised on his way to his sleeping dragon. He turned slowly, to see White glaring at him, the plate in one hand and a knife in the other. "Sit down." She commanded indicating a place closer to the fire with her knife, N, not wanting to give her any reason to point the knife at him, quickly sat in the spot. White shoved the plate at him, N was a little bit surprised and a lot relieved to find a small rolled piece of flatbread with greens on the plate. He looked up at White and she motioned with her free hand before going back to the frying pan and laying out something that made the metal hiss and spit. Having been given the go ahead and feeling far too hungry to worry about being poisoned, N took a quick bite of the food and was pleasantly surprised at the taste. It was quite good, warm but still had the refreshing crunch of veggies to it.

Black was fighting his way out of his sleeping bag slowly, yawning wide enough to make N's jaw ache in sympathy. Eventually he tottered over and slumped to the ground beside him, hair in disarray and eyes unfocused. He accepted the plate White handed over. Biting into the wrap, this one made with meat N noted, without a second thought. Hot juices ran down Black's chin and he yelped, almost dropping the plate. White snorted under her breath at her friend's antics and settled down on N's other side, eating her breakfast with more care.

And as N sat there, sandwiched between the two enemies turned friends, he felt more at peace then he had in a long time, which was strange, he should be feeling lost and alone, everything that he had believed had been turned over and shown for the dark truths that they were. But right now none of that mattered. Sitting with him were two people, who had cared enough to chase after him and make sure he was okay, even with all the trouble he had caused. N found he couldn't stop the tears from streaming down his face as he chewed steadily on the meal White had cooked. A heavy weight around his shoulders as Black dropped an arm there and pulled him closer, a warm arm slinging around his waist and White moved closer.

"It's okay," Black murmured. "Well, maybe it's not, not right now. But things are going to _change_ now, it'll all be different, and sooner or later it'll be better." And N couldn't help but believe the younger boy when he spoke with such conviction.

N used to be so sure of his path. His road was laid out before him from birth. He was destined to be the hero, to be the king, to usher in a new age of pokemon and human relations, to free the oppressed pokemon from their bondage and create a world separate from humans for them. But in the span of less than an hour his whole reality had been toppled and the lies on which it had been built brought down. Black had been right though, things were different now, N wasn't sure of anything. Not anymore. The whole world was brand new; he was seeing things in a whole different light. Everything was different. But that didn't mean it was bad.


End file.
